When Naomi Osaka was drawn to face Amanda Anisimova in the opening round of Roland Garros, it was hard to tell who had the tougher draw.
For Osaka, seeking to unlock the unsolved mystery of clay-court tennis at an event where she has yet to advance beyond the third round, a renewal of hostilities with her Australian Open conqueror would not have been uppermost on any wishlist of early tests.
Anisimova, meanwhile, who was forced to save two match points in that third-round meeting at Melbourne Park, would likewise have hoped for a less onerous assignment than a former world No 1 and four-time slam champion with a score to settle.
Anisimova, at 28th in the world the higher-ranked player by 10 places, later admitted to feeling “the stress and the nerves”, and it doubtless did little to allay her misgivings that, in Osaka, she faced an opponent cast in the same powerful mould.
But the American knows her way around a clay court and, while she struggled to hit through her opponent, and suffered more than a few anxious moments, she was the sharper and more consistent of the two when it mattered. In the face of some erratic play from Osaka, including no fewer than eight double faults, it was enough to give the 20-year-old a 7-5, 6-4 victory.
“It was a bit unfortunate, because I wasn’t able to play many matches leading into this tournament,” said Osaka, whose build-up to the tournament was curtailed by an Achilles injury that forced her to withdraw from the Italian Open.
“So there were probably some really bad decisions that I made on certain points, but I think overall I wasn’t too bad.
“I think the difference for me was match play, like I only played two matches on clay this year. I wish I could have played more. I stayed in Europe for longer to be able to prepare for this tournament, so it is a bit disappointing.
“But I’m happy with how my attitude was, because the last match that we played in Australia I think I was getting a bit more upset with myself, so I think I progressed in that part.”
Even before the draw, Osaka was approaching the tournament gingerly. That was partly down to her injury, and partly due to uncertainty about how she would be received after the global media maelstrom that followed her decision to shun press duties last year. So when her coach, Wim Fissette, told her she would be facing Anisimova for a second successive slam, Osaka thought he was joking.
Damp, heavy conditions ensured neither player had much cause for merriment in the early stages. After a flurry of early breaks, however, the contest settled into the kind of first-strike pattern one would expect from two of the most unflinching shot-makers in the women’s game. After 10 games, there was nothing to separate the pair.
Then came a hint of fallibility from Anisimova, who took a high ball that was perhaps flying long and volleyed it into the bottom of the net, to her evident dismay. She has enjoyed a productive few weeks on the red dirt, however, reaching the last four in Charleston and successive quarter-finals in Madrid and Rome, and with the rhythm of regular competition comes an ability to roll with the punches. Instead it was Osaka, lacking match sharpness, who blinked first, a double fault handing Anisimova a crucial break. The American served out the set to love.
There were would be more wobbly moments for the American, not least when she made errors off either wing to spurn her first two match points as she served at 40-0 in the final game. But she had stuck doggedly to her front-foot game plan throughout, continuing to blast away even as Osaka tried to tailor her play to the conditions with greater margin and spin, and she was not about to back off now. Once again showing the courage of her convictions, she rifled a backhand winner down the line to seal victory.
“When you see Naomi Osaka in the first round, you don’t think it’s going to be easy,” said Anisimova, who will face Donna Vekic of Croatia in the next round. “The conditions were tough today, because of the rain it was very heavy. So I was kind of expecting her to play that way. But I just was trying to stay aggressive and keep going for my flat shots, because that’s what I thought would help me get the win.”
Barbora Krejcikova, the Czech defending champion, swiftly followed Osaka out of the tournament, defeated 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 by Diane Parry of France. Krejcikova, the second seed, had not played since February after suffering an elbow injury. Despite that lengthy layoff, she showed no initial signs of rust, reeling off eight of the first nine games to lead by a set and a break.
Parry, a gifted 19-year-old ranked 97th in the world, had merely been caught in the headlights. As she belatedly acclimatised to the occasion, the flowing one-handed backhand that had flown long in the early stages began to land with unerring regularity. At the same time, Krejcikova’s game began to misfire.
As the momentum shifted towards Parry, so the crowd began to turn on the Czech, who ill-advisedly left the court for a lengthy change of attire at the end of the second set and was roundly jeered on her return. Krejcikova nonetheless claimed an early break in the decider, but a run of eight successive points put Parry back on level terms, and the former junior world No 1 was the steadier down the home stretch.
“I expected it was going to be difficult, and it was,” said Krejcikova. “I had to start somewhere, so it’s a pity that it had to be here and I didn’t have any other matches.
“I hit the wall. I just collapsed physically. It was tough, because I didn’t play matches. Usually matches are different than practices, and I tried to prepare the best way I could. For sure, I didn’t want to miss this one.”
While Krejcikova, elbow allowing, will now seek to get more matches under her belt in preparation for the grass-court season, Osaka said she may skip Wimbledon following the WTA’s decision to strip the tournament of ranking points.
“The decision is kind of affecting my mentality going into grass,” said Osaka of the WTA’s response to the ban imposed on Russian and Belarusian players by the All England Club following the Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine.
“I’m not 100% sure if I’m going to go there. I would love to go just to get some experience on the grass courts, but like at the same time, for me, it’s kind of like – I don’t want to say pointless, no pun intended – but I’m the type of player that gets motivated by seeing my ranking go, stuff like that. I think the intention was really good, but the execution is kind of all over the place.”
Execution was not a problem for Iga Swiatek, the top seed and red-hot favourite for the title, who claimed her 29th win in a row with a 6-2, 6-0 mauling of Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine. But Emma Raducanu, the 12th seed, was made to work hard by Czech qualifier Linda Noskova, battling back from a set down to subdue the 17-year-old girls’ champion 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-1 in a battle spanning more than two and a half hours.